Imagine this for me, a star, a vast furnace, burning in outer space, fusing hydrogen into helium in it’s core, shining brightly out there lonely in space. No one knows when its gonna die or when it was born. We humans trillions of miles away from it. Yesterday, I went to my balcony, saw a star and started wondering that although we can see the star from here but who knows it might not even be alive, it might be dead, we might be looking at a dead star, who knows? It might have become a neutron star, a white dwarf, a nebula or a black hole, we can’t just see it because of the distance, because of how far away it is from us. Light has a definitive speed, we all know that, it takes a certain amount of time to reach from 1 place to another. Light travels in a periodic motion, it covers equal distances in equal periods of time. For example- the light from the sun reaches us in 8 minutes, if the sun is dead, we wouldn’t even know about it for those 8 minutes, for us nothing has even happened, it’s like everything is normal. But we won’t have to worry about that because that is not happening any time soon, I believe our sun is strong enough to protect us, but give it a thought, the sun is not really protecting us, it’s actually preparing itself and us so that in the future it eats us. Let me explain you. The sun is just a giant ball of fire and gas, which is burning, fusing hydrogen into helium in its core. The earth is lucky enough to be born in the goldilocks zone (the zone in the solar system where there are favourable conditions for humans to survive) of the solar system and also lucky enough to be born with other planets, so that it forms a system where each and every planet helps its neighbouring planet. So we are in a system where the sun and the planets live happily along with the asteroid and Kuiper belts. The sun, as I was saying, is eventually going to eat up the Earth when it’s about to die which is in about 5 billion years. If we really give it a thought, we are living in the best era of the world right now, where the sun is in its main sequence stage (the most stable stage in a star’s life), beautiful asteroid showers are taking place around the world, space technology is getting advanced and enjoyable and it’s not too much technology nor too much simplicity in this world, so we should enjoy it while we can. I mean in older times, there were no phones or nothing, not much technology, and imagine this, in the upcoming years, there are going to be screens everywhere, there is going to be a bit too much technology, that children won’t even get out of their houses, we are in the mere middle (which is a very good thing). Ok, Let’s get back to the point, I was talking about how we can’t really tell if a star in the sky is dead or not because as I told you before light travels in a definitive speed, it takes time to reach here (as a matter of fact, most of the stars we see in the night sky are dead, but that isn’t the same case when you are looking at only 1 or 2 stars, the rarest possibility would be if both of them are dead). So Imagine that the star I was looking at was dead, and its light took 12 years to reach here, imagine that star was about 0.2 solar masses so it became a nebula. After 12 years, you would ask me that why can’t I see the nebula now because the nebula’s light could’ve reached me. Well, a nebula first of all, isn’t bright enough and second is that it is surrounded by clouds of gas and dust, so deep inside we can’t see it. What about if it becomes a black hole, (well for that it at first should have at least 2 solar masses) then its gravity swallows light. Well what about if it becomes a neutron star? (well for that, it has to be atleast 10 solar masses) They are too hot for us to even see them. What about a white dwarf, (for that it should be atleast 0.8 solar masses) although if its relatively close to the solar system, we can see it (If I ever find one, I will let you know) but there aren’t any, so the answer would be that they are too small. I think from my personal opinion, that we humans live in a beautiful world and don’t praise it enough, we are lucky to be born, we are maybe the one and only civilization in the entire universe (although I don’t strongly believe that), IMAGINE THAT! We all should take a moment, look up to the sky and wonder and appreciate its beauty, at least for like 5 minutes. I think we humans have made it complicated, we are stuck in our own web of problems, so much that we don’t appreciate this universe enough.
By,
Deeparsh Bhanot
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